Don't Forget Your Etiquette!: The Essential Guide to Misbehavior - Hardcover

David T. Greenberg

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0374349908 ISBN 13: 9780374349905

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR), 2006

Synopsis

If you're smart, you'll read my book
Of modern children's etiquette.
If you don't, I'm sad to say –
Your life will be pathetiquette.

Meet Miss Information, the world's foremost expert on bad behavior, as she offers upside-down advice about the etiquette of absolutely everything. In twenty impishly off-center poems she states her views on such important topics as bathing (with and without gerbils), kissing (Komodo dragons as well as teachers), and eating.

Exuberant illustrations full of hilarious antics add to the humor of this mischievous spoof on bad behavior. These sly poems offer a child-friendly way to discuss what good behavior really should be like and are sure to become every child's essential guide to – a rollicking good time!

About this title

About the Authors

DAVID GREENBERG’s picture books in verse include the popular Slugs. He lives in Portland, Oregon.

Nadine Bernard Westcott's many picture books including She Did It! by Jennifer A. Ericsson, which Kirkus Reviews called "a bushel-full of fun." She lives in Nantucket, Massachusetts.

Reviews

Grade 1-4–In 20 clever poems, Miss Information, a colorfully clothed character wearing blue-framed half-moon glasses, provides children with some new and unusual rules for modern manners. As she explains, …the etiquette of olden days/Takes endless, boring study./Children need an etiquette/Far less fuddy-duddy. Framed with quotes from the likes of Emily Post and Miss Manners (appropriately credited in the back of the book), the selections merrily turn traditional advice upside down. Dressing properly? Tuck your tie into your belt/And wear it as a tail./Put your undies on your head/And wear them as a veil. Table manners? When drinking from a gravy boat/Hold it by the lip/And delicately sip from it,/Careful not to drip. There are offerings about babysitters, bathroom behavior, going to sleep (or not), disagreeing with adults, and, of course, belching. Westcott's pastel-hued watercolors are filled with verve, charm, and humor as mischievous youngsters interact with other kids, parents, and teachers. This book will tickle children's funny bones on its own, or it could be used as part of a discussion about appropriate social behavior.–Grace Oliff, Ann Blanche Smith School, Hillsdale, NJ
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

In this lively spoof of etiquette books, Miss Information, a young girl who claims to be fully grown and in possession of countless Ph.D.s, offers expertise on modern etiquette in a "far less fuddy-duddy" manner than the etiquette books of olden days. Advice on topics ranging from sipping soup ("At fancy dinner parties, sip soup from your hat") to "how you kiss good night" is dished out in 20 poems. Most are preceded by quotes from standard etiquette books, which seem idiotic when followed by Miss Information's outrageous recommendations. Greenberg makes creative use of language, especially in finding words to rhyme with etiquette (pathetiquette, getiquette), and Westcott's bright cartoon-style artwork, with gleeful animals and manic children rollicking everywhere (especially in the "Etiquette for the Tub" scene), perfectly illustrate the fine points Miss Information wishes to convey. Some adults may consider this too subversive, but others will see it as an entertaining way to spark discussions about the difference between proper and unacceptable behavior. Randall Enos
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0374349908
• ISBN 13: 9780374349905
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Nadine Bernard Westcott
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 40